Change The Course Of History

If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future.

-Winston Churchill

Welcome to Take One of August’s Secret Subject Swaps-Change The Course Of History. This month, Baking In A Tornado got a secret subject topic from 12 brave bloggers and assigned them each a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts!

My “Secret Subject” is:

You’re on an airplane during a storm over the Atlantic Ocean. The plane gets lost in the Bermuda Triangle. Where did you end up (place and time period).

As the airplane was maneuvering through the airport and into position to be given the all clear for take off, I passed a package of green spearmint gum down the row to my right. Each of the four kids took a piece before handing the pack to The Handsome Prince on the end, who shoved the leftovers into his pocket. Everyone had listened to the safety guidelines and was getting comfy for the eagerly anticipated, lengthy trip.

We had been saving for years to take a top shelf vacation with the family and the opportunity to take in the culture of so many countries was intoxicating during the planning process. We had booked the red eye flight in the hopes that everyone would be able to get some rest while passing the time.

Soon lights were extinguished to a soft warm glow and rhythmic humming of the engines played the song of sleep to passengers grabbing for their pillows and donning airplane issued soft black satin eye masks making the plane rows look like a strange sensory deprivation experiments.

I was feeling satisfied and accomplished to see our excellent travelers had all gotten themselves settled and were nodding off, allowing their parents to do the same. Waving goodnight to The Handsome Prince, we both reclined and joined the experiment. The sweet smell of K’s strawberry lip gloss made it feel like we were just lying in a garden on a comfortably warm day. The engine sounding like bee’s with bodies heavily laden with pollen flying from plants to flowers. Relaxing in the sun with the sweet syrup of the strawberry juices still lingering gently upon the lips, making the taste buds dance with the flavor explosion…

Explosion!

I jolted from sleep by noises that sounded like a giant had taken hold of the airplane and was peeling back it’s exterior, while twisting the frame all at once. Sickly shredding metal noises and screams were sucked into the vacuum of air that was whipping through the cabin. The oxygen masks deployed and dangled for a moment like a saving grace in an otherwise horrendous experience. They hung for seconds before the roof of the plane ripped off taking the oxygen lifeline and any sensations of hope with it. Helplessly I see the terror in our children’s eyes as we’re all strapped in our row on the worst ride we ever paid for.

I know exactly what my Handsome Prince is thinking because I could utter the same words from my heart…

If we have to go, best we go together.

In life nothing could keep us apart, a silly little thing like the end of one’s mortal experience isn’t going to rain on our parade. I’m sure we’d find plenty of shenanigans to get into in the after life but in heaven I don’t have to do laundry and dishes magically wash themselves. Our demise was starting to sound appealing.

Our rapid descent came to a stop but not a crash. It was as if the laws of gravity had simple ceased to apply any longer. Before anyone could take a deep breath, the passengers blew into different directions as though they were dandelion seeds and someone had just blown extremely hard sending each one to take flight as though they were desperate to make their wish come true.

The kids were holding onto each other so when the rows started breaking apart and flying off into the dark, our seats folded onto each other and sent us rocketing through the sky to our doom. It was so kind of death to allow us our last moments of terror to be together as a whole family.

So that’s what all my karma points got cashed in for.

Ahem… I could have used a grilled cheese sandwich or a rocket ship a bit more but who am I to decide what the universe tosses back at ya.

End over end we were slowly spinning, almost like we were hurdling through space. We tried to look around us but the wind was rushing too fast to see anything more than the odd streaks of color or brightness in an otherwise infinite blackness.

The air got cooler and smelled of salt.

There were sounds of birds and crashing waves.

Once again gravity increased sending us plunging into the sea, precariously perched upon a corral reef. We struggled to free one another before the seats were jolted by the waves and claimed forever by the salt water depths below.

Only half of us were wearing shoes when the plane busted up so in the dark of the night with a sliver of a moon as a guide we carried those shoeless over the reef and back to water where they could swim towards an unknown shore.

Hours past as we huddled together on the sand just out of the water’s reach too fearful to venture further into the unknown until daybreak offered more assistance. Everyone was physically alright beyond some bruises and scratches but it was imperative that we keep it that way.

Over the next three years we explored the small island, made a very comfortable life for ourselves and enjoyed a lifestyle surrounded by the beautiful warm sea. The children were proficient swimmers before became skilled at fishing and collecting a variety of life from the sea floor. Lobster was not the same without butter and salt. Each of us imagined a big bowl of melted salted sweet cream butter to dip into and on extra creative days we might even toss in a hallucination of cheese biscuits too. It was a good life. A strange life but we had what we needed and we had each other. Everything else we slowly tried to make ourselves.

The kids liked exploring in some of the ship wrecks in the shallow waters. K had been daring Luc to go down into a ship that looked a bit darker than he felt comfortable with. Finally he roped her into making the dive with him. On the count of three, one…two… three… they dove off their makeshift raft and followed the anchor line that they had picked up off another wreck, down further and further until they could see into the window of the Captain’s Room.

K let out her breath in a gasp and had to quickly head back to the surface leaving Luc there long enough to grab the dish on the table just inside the window. His plan was to show the rest of the members of his family that he wasn’t a chicken like K had been.

As his head burst out of the surface he could hear K asking him a question.

“What?” he said.

“Did you see that? We have to get Dad!” K said so excited that she could hardly contain herself.

She pulled herself up onto the raft and started pulling up the makeshift anchor as Luc put the bowl on top and struggled to get on as well.

“Oh my gosh! Luc! We’re rich!” K screams almost upending the raft and sending the pot of gold pieces before them back to the sea.

The kids brought their loot back to camp. Everyone was so excited to find treasure that we spent several months amassing a stockpile of treasures, precious metals and jewels that would be the envy of any pirate.

What for… we’re stuck on an island?!

Simply because we can so we did. It was fun!

Eventually our oasis had to come to an end when a Navy ship spotted our bonfire on the beach of an island in the South Pacific thought not to be inhabited. They generously supplied us with several Navy issued duffel bags to carry home what we said were our personal effects and mementos from the days on the island. Which was totally true, just that our bags were stuffed with sunken treasure.

I thought our rescuers were rockin’ a bit of a retro look but I’ve been on an island for a few years, who am I to comment on fashion. The Navy had no reports of any missing airline planes in that area at all. The Handsome Prince said, “I think we’re not in 2013.”

“2013?! Ha! Mister, you must be sick from the island,” said the portly gentleman escorting us to a cabin until we reach an island we can fly home from. “Lucky for me it’s 1950, the missus just bought us a 24″ television and I can’t wait to get home to watch it with her. First television on our block.”

“I can totally do a 1950’s look,” Mini gushed.

“This is what it would be like if The Adams family were dropped into Pleasantville.” K growled under breath thinking that there would be skirts in her future.

Kenzie agreed with The Prince and I, this was going to be great!

Since we are California people, naturally we chose to start our life anew in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Given the stroke of luck we had encountered on the island we were able to invest quietly in some key items that would insure a prosperous future. Like several car dealerships, oil, gold, and most of Santa Barbara.

We would use that affluence to live on a small ranch where The Handsome Prince would design the cars he’s always wanted and we’d would travel so I could interview people that history tells us will do great things… before they achieve their pinnacle. I write better biographies than Kitty Kelly and have tea twice a week with Erma Bombeck before she was a hoot. Progressive rules still apply in our home but dang does my butt look good in hot pants.

The kids will be able to study their talents without school loans and wearing adorable tea length dresses.

Except Luc, he doesn’t have the legs for a dress so instead he trades them for a pairs of work pants but they weren’t strong enough. So he invented a line of tough durable work pants while he invents the first home gas BBQ grill. He retires at 29 years old and is married to Gidget with 2.5 kids. They’ll resume their Endless Summer after baby number three is born. With plans to set sail to Fiji for 6 months, where he sees an untapped market of trade, acts on it and found himself being able to afford a lifetime worth of surf trips bumming around the world with our grand babies and only daughter-in-law.

Kenzie used her fortune to purchase the most highly sought after horse back riding facility this side of the Rocky Mountains. She refuses to eat seafood but yet she built the cities aquarium facility that provides educational opportunities to youth free of charge. She has four cats, six dogs, an emu, two ferrets and a husband name Frank. We’re hoping for grand kids from them sometime in the ’60’s. She and Frank breed and train attack donkey and llama. Need home protection but are afraid of dogs… you too can own Llamguard or a Donkguard. Guaranteed to take any crook by surprise! *Pooper scooper not included.*

K is the gal you want to know in Hollywood. Girl saw the opportunity and tossed together a studio and management team signing acts like The Doors, The Grateful Dead, Elvis. She’s at the top of everyone’s guest list but she spends all of her free time at her home studio with her happily committed without a piece of paper artist partner in crime where they like to listen to music, paint and hang out by their lake with their dogs. She writes most of the popular tunes that hit the top 20 throughout the sixties through the late eighties. She’s a regular on The Tonight Show and does stand up for charity.

Min goes on become a aeronautical engineer and one of the most highly respected in her field. She owns and operates a private flight school on the weekends where she gives the lessons while her husband and children run the business on the ground. She is subcontracted by the government when they became awear of the R/C airplanes she built with The Handsome Prince. They pay her to teach people how to fly from the ground. Even her youngest kiddo can do it. She guest lectures and flies everyone home for our big family dinners each Sunday night.

As our large family gathers around our massive butcher block table for our weekly feast, I am struck with such an overwhelming grateful feeling.

“Can you believe that all these years later… after the crash, the island, the loot, and getting to live the old Hollywood vintage styles… I feel so terribly fortunate to be able to look at every single one of you’re beautiful dear faces. I feel like we should do more to change the world.”

“If you could change the course of history and erase one thing, what would it be?” The Handsome Prince questioned.

Suddenly the earth began to tremble and the lights went out.

“Mullets!” I scream as my eyes fly open, finding me safely on an airplane of people now staring at me.

“I didn’t mean mullets! That’s not my wish!”

“Most people on vacation don’t dream of bad displays of hair, Mom,” Min snipped at me.

I settle back into my seat feeling shaken and try to close my eyes again.

The buzzing of the bee’s, the soft wafting scent of strawberry…

Better get off this ride and start reading the amazingly talented writers below!

5 comments

Meg, this was so fun. I’m glad someone else thinks about, “If we’re going to go, I’m glad it will be all together”. Happily , you were just off exploring and getting rich (with no mullets!). I always loved the movies where they told what happened to the characters at the end. You’re a great writer.

There are so many fascinating time periods I’m not sure where I would want to end up. However, Back to the Future IS one of my very favorite movies, so the 1950s would indeed be a place I’d want to visit, even if just for a little while. You did a wonderful job with this prompt! I loved reading every word of it!